Arrest warrant for Imran Khan

An anti-terrorist court in Islamabad on Friday directed the police to implement its orders in relation to the arrest warrants of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan and Pakistan Awami Tehrik chief Tahirul Qadri in the Pakistan Television (PTV) headquarters attack case.

Today’s hearing of the case was presided by ATC judge Kausar Abbas Zaidi who inquired why the police had not been able to submit an implementation report on the court’s arrest orders.

Expressing his displeasure over the police’s failure to submit the implementation report, the judge directed authorities to carry out the arrests of Imran Khan, Tahirul Qadri and 68 others by Nov 17 and present them in court on the said date.

The 70 were booked after a mob of protesters belonging to the PTI and PAT stormed PTV headquarters and forced its staff to take two of the state broadcaster’s flagship channels — PTV News and PTV World — off the air on Sept 1, 2014.

According to eyewitnesses, at the time nearly 400 PTI and PAT workers had stormed the PTV building, across the road from the main entrance to the Pakistan Secretariat. The attack had come soon after demonstrators were repulsed from the secretariat compound.